Investors Dip Leading Edge of Toenail Back Into Stock Funds

Investors actually put money into U.S. stock funds in the week ended January 11! A sight accompanied by pigs flying.

Now before anyone gets too excited, net flows into stock funds were estimated to be a meager $753 million, according to the Investment Company Institute.

That follows a $7 billion exodus the previous week and weekly outflows going back at least through early December. U.S.-focused stock funds haven’t had a month of inflows since last April, according to the ICI data.

And the love-affair with bond funds shows no sign of abating. Bond funds raked in nearly $2 billion in the most recent week.

But, hey! You’ve got to start somewhere.

The backdrop here is an environment where smaller investors generally remain hunkered down, looking for income and safety in the form of dividend strategies, corporate bonds and an overall conservative approaches to investing. Which, frankly, doesn’t seem to be an unreasonable way to go.

Thanks for reading MarketBeat. We would like to direct you to MoneyBeat, the Wall Street Journal’s brand new global blog. MoneyBeat unites MarketBeat, The Source, Overheard and all the Deal Journal blogs, bringing together all the market, M&A, IPO and hedge-fund news from those blogs into a 24-hour hub for finance news. Check it out and let us know what you think at moneyblog@wsj.com.

About MarketBeat

MarketBeat looks under the hood of Wall Street each day, finding market-moving news, analyzing trends and highlighting noteworthy commentary from the best blogs and research. MarketBeat is updated frequently throughout the day, helping investors stay on top of what’s happening in the markets. Lead writers Paul Vigna and Steven Russolillo spearhead the MarketBeat team, with contributions from other Journal reporters and editors. Have a comment? Write to paul.vigna@wsj.com or steven.russolillo@wsj.com.